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arXiv · hep-th/9510119

Non-Thermal Phase Transitions after Inflation

Lev Kofman·Andrei Linde·Alexei A. Starobinsky
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Abstract

At the first stage of reheating after inflation, parametric resonance may rapidly transfer most of the energy of an inflaton field $ϕ$ to the energy of other bosons. We show that quantum fluctuations of scalar and vector fields produced at this stage are much greater than they would be in a state of thermal equilibrium. This leads to cosmological phase transitions of a new type, which may result in a copious production of topological defects and in a secondary stage of inflation after reheating.

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Lev Kofman, Andrei Linde, Alexei A. Starobinsky. 1996-01-02. Non-Thermal Phase Transitions after Inflation. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.76.1011

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